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Don't know if this is CART or IRL , it includes both. A pretty biting commentary by Robin Miller.
Perception often better than reality
By Robin Miller
The line between perception and reality can get pretty blurry depending on how close you're standing. Take the season openers for IRL and CART.
In its debut last month at St. Petersburg, CART played to a nice gathering -- filling most of the 26,000 grandstand seats and running another 12,000 through general admission.
But its television rating on SpeedChannel was an embarassing 0.2 -- roughly 138,000 homes. CART's Stars of Tomorrow go-kart race drew a 0.3 and test patterns usually hit 0.5.
On the other side, last weekend's IRL show at Homestead, Fla., drew a very encouraging 1.8 rating on ABC -- the best number in open wheel (sans the Indy 500) in several years.
But the turnout was absymal, with an estimated 17,000 people squeezed into a few sections to give the illusion of a crowd. Informed sources say race sponsor Toyota and Marlboro each purchased several thousand tickets and gave them away -- standard practice in their CART days.
Naturally, both camps chirped about their success and left Florida feeling warm, if not fuzzy.
The perception may be that all is well in open wheel racing when the reality is that eight years into this Civil War, interest and identity -- at least in this country -- are lower than CART's stock price.
And it's no wonder when you consider the confusion, constant changes, treachery and misguided priorities.
Tony George, who started the IRL because of all the things he despised about CART, now finds his series has morphed into that four-letter word he supposedly hated in the mid-1990s.
Back then, George spoke openly about his disdain for manipulating car owners like Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi. He abhorred restrictive engine lease programs from big manufacturers like Honda and Toyota. Ditto for all those foreigners and road racers in CART. Same for races outside the USA.
Now, can you spell hypocrite?
First off, George and his minions gushed all over themselves last year when Penske dumped CART for the IRL. Ganassi, with two cars in the league and none in CART, has also become a favorite son in the IRL office.
Penske, who in 2001 had implored his fellow CART owners to adopt IRL engine specs for 2003, had already set the wheels in motion for Toyota to join the all-oval series.
When Honda announced it would follow Toyota to the IRL in 2003 there was much rejoicing (unless you were in the General Motors front office).
Those Japanese manufacturers and their evil engine leases are now the darlings of the IRL unless, of course, you're still running a Chevrolet.
And that would not include Mr. America -- Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. He ditched his Chevy for a Toyota and also added a driver whose name he can neither spell nor pronounce (Shigeaki Hattori).
But A.J. will be a hit in next month's race at Motegi, Japan.
Of the 21 drivers who started the IRL opener, 10 were foreigners and 20 of the 21 were road racers (Sarah Fisher being the lone oval-track disciple).
So much for the IRL being the midget and sprint-car driver's expressway to Indianapolis. Unless you count USAC champ J.J. Yeley, who drives the IRL two-seater for corporate outings at Indy but can't get a sniff of the real thing because he doesn't have enough money.
Short-trackers like Billy Boat, Donnie Beechler, Jimmy Kite, Brian Tyler, Dave Steele, Tyce Carlson and Jon Herb have vanished -- just like Alex Barron, Jim Guthrie, Robby Unser, Richie Hearn, Jeff Ward, Robby McGehee and George Mack to name a few of the 127 drivers who have started at least one IRL show since 1996.
Former IRL champs Buddy Lazier and Greg Ray are still scrambling to come up with rides for the rest of '03.
And that band of loyal IRL owners like Brad Calkins, Fred Treadway, Greg Beck, Sam Schmidt and Boat, who beat George's drum for equal opportunity and praised his vision, have now been put on the trailer by the big money brought in by former CART manufacturers and teams.
Despite its hypocrisy, the IRL does sport just about every recognizable name that CART used to have (Michael Andretti, Kenny Brack, Helio Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Al Unser Jr.) and depth like never before.
On the other hand, CART's stupid, self-destructive ways nearly spelled death. Between arrogance and lack of leadership, Honda and Toyota were run off and, ironically, it's the former core of CART (Penske, Ganassi, Andretti/Green, Morris Nunn) that is now propping up the IRL.
CART's lineup is almost unrecognizable with nine rookies and only two Americans. Other than Paul Tracy and '96 champ Jimmy Vasser it's a faceless cast to the American public.
Instead of embracing its feeder system and helping deserving Americans like Joey Hand, Rocky Moran Jr., Memo Gidley and Alex Gurney move up to champ cars, CART has become a lame leg of the European F3000 series.
How can anybody in Cleveland, Long Beach or Tampa get passionate about a series with Joel Camathias or Rudolfo Lavin?
Still, trying to make Camathias or Tiago Monteiro a household name with CART's TV package isn't reasonable. SpeedChannel, which hosts the majority of races, is far from mainstream programming yet while time buys on CBS aren't even guaranteed to be live.
Plus, selling American sponsors with seven races out of the country and without the Indianapolis 500, is another major obstacle.
Give CEO Chris Pook credit. He convinced the owners to keep turbocharged Cosworths for everyone and then got Bridgestone and Ford to stick around as partners. But CART still had to dig deep into its kitty to produce 19 cars.
Pook knows the key is surviving until 2005, where CART will likely enter into some sort of partnership with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
Of course, the true tragedy of open wheel is what it could be with 40 cars, the 22 best venues and one series.
Instead, it's a fragmented formula that can't out-run the reality of the situation.
Open wheel racing has been irreparably damaged by this Civil War. It may never get back to where it was in 1995. The Indy 500 has become a one-day event. Neither series has enough owners or sponsors. Both series lie about attendance. The man on the street doesn't know Sam Hornish from Bruno Junqueira but he darn sure recognizes Kenny Wallace.
People who say George won the war aren't paying attention. Because there's only been one winner in this demolition derby.
NASCAR.
Perception often better than reality
By Robin Miller
The line between perception and reality can get pretty blurry depending on how close you're standing. Take the season openers for IRL and CART.
In its debut last month at St. Petersburg, CART played to a nice gathering -- filling most of the 26,000 grandstand seats and running another 12,000 through general admission.
But its television rating on SpeedChannel was an embarassing 0.2 -- roughly 138,000 homes. CART's Stars of Tomorrow go-kart race drew a 0.3 and test patterns usually hit 0.5.
On the other side, last weekend's IRL show at Homestead, Fla., drew a very encouraging 1.8 rating on ABC -- the best number in open wheel (sans the Indy 500) in several years.
But the turnout was absymal, with an estimated 17,000 people squeezed into a few sections to give the illusion of a crowd. Informed sources say race sponsor Toyota and Marlboro each purchased several thousand tickets and gave them away -- standard practice in their CART days.
Naturally, both camps chirped about their success and left Florida feeling warm, if not fuzzy.
The perception may be that all is well in open wheel racing when the reality is that eight years into this Civil War, interest and identity -- at least in this country -- are lower than CART's stock price.
And it's no wonder when you consider the confusion, constant changes, treachery and misguided priorities.
Tony George, who started the IRL because of all the things he despised about CART, now finds his series has morphed into that four-letter word he supposedly hated in the mid-1990s.
Back then, George spoke openly about his disdain for manipulating car owners like Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi. He abhorred restrictive engine lease programs from big manufacturers like Honda and Toyota. Ditto for all those foreigners and road racers in CART. Same for races outside the USA.
Now, can you spell hypocrite?
First off, George and his minions gushed all over themselves last year when Penske dumped CART for the IRL. Ganassi, with two cars in the league and none in CART, has also become a favorite son in the IRL office.
Penske, who in 2001 had implored his fellow CART owners to adopt IRL engine specs for 2003, had already set the wheels in motion for Toyota to join the all-oval series.
When Honda announced it would follow Toyota to the IRL in 2003 there was much rejoicing (unless you were in the General Motors front office).
Those Japanese manufacturers and their evil engine leases are now the darlings of the IRL unless, of course, you're still running a Chevrolet.
And that would not include Mr. America -- Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. He ditched his Chevy for a Toyota and also added a driver whose name he can neither spell nor pronounce (Shigeaki Hattori).
But A.J. will be a hit in next month's race at Motegi, Japan.
Of the 21 drivers who started the IRL opener, 10 were foreigners and 20 of the 21 were road racers (Sarah Fisher being the lone oval-track disciple).
So much for the IRL being the midget and sprint-car driver's expressway to Indianapolis. Unless you count USAC champ J.J. Yeley, who drives the IRL two-seater for corporate outings at Indy but can't get a sniff of the real thing because he doesn't have enough money.
Short-trackers like Billy Boat, Donnie Beechler, Jimmy Kite, Brian Tyler, Dave Steele, Tyce Carlson and Jon Herb have vanished -- just like Alex Barron, Jim Guthrie, Robby Unser, Richie Hearn, Jeff Ward, Robby McGehee and George Mack to name a few of the 127 drivers who have started at least one IRL show since 1996.
Former IRL champs Buddy Lazier and Greg Ray are still scrambling to come up with rides for the rest of '03.
And that band of loyal IRL owners like Brad Calkins, Fred Treadway, Greg Beck, Sam Schmidt and Boat, who beat George's drum for equal opportunity and praised his vision, have now been put on the trailer by the big money brought in by former CART manufacturers and teams.
Despite its hypocrisy, the IRL does sport just about every recognizable name that CART used to have (Michael Andretti, Kenny Brack, Helio Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Al Unser Jr.) and depth like never before.
On the other hand, CART's stupid, self-destructive ways nearly spelled death. Between arrogance and lack of leadership, Honda and Toyota were run off and, ironically, it's the former core of CART (Penske, Ganassi, Andretti/Green, Morris Nunn) that is now propping up the IRL.
CART's lineup is almost unrecognizable with nine rookies and only two Americans. Other than Paul Tracy and '96 champ Jimmy Vasser it's a faceless cast to the American public.
Instead of embracing its feeder system and helping deserving Americans like Joey Hand, Rocky Moran Jr., Memo Gidley and Alex Gurney move up to champ cars, CART has become a lame leg of the European F3000 series.
How can anybody in Cleveland, Long Beach or Tampa get passionate about a series with Joel Camathias or Rudolfo Lavin?
Still, trying to make Camathias or Tiago Monteiro a household name with CART's TV package isn't reasonable. SpeedChannel, which hosts the majority of races, is far from mainstream programming yet while time buys on CBS aren't even guaranteed to be live.
Plus, selling American sponsors with seven races out of the country and without the Indianapolis 500, is another major obstacle.
Give CEO Chris Pook credit. He convinced the owners to keep turbocharged Cosworths for everyone and then got Bridgestone and Ford to stick around as partners. But CART still had to dig deep into its kitty to produce 19 cars.
Pook knows the key is surviving until 2005, where CART will likely enter into some sort of partnership with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
Of course, the true tragedy of open wheel is what it could be with 40 cars, the 22 best venues and one series.
Instead, it's a fragmented formula that can't out-run the reality of the situation.
Open wheel racing has been irreparably damaged by this Civil War. It may never get back to where it was in 1995. The Indy 500 has become a one-day event. Neither series has enough owners or sponsors. Both series lie about attendance. The man on the street doesn't know Sam Hornish from Bruno Junqueira but he darn sure recognizes Kenny Wallace.
People who say George won the war aren't paying attention. Because there's only been one winner in this demolition derby.
NASCAR.